Council cool to $14.4M loan request

City Council gave a prickly reception Monday night to loaning $14.4 million in city half-cent tax revenue for building an exhibition hall onto the Pueblo Convention Center.

Officials from the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce, Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority and the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo asked for the loan, saying Pueblo could lose its state-approved Regional Tourism Act grant if the city doesn’t provide financing by the end of December.

The RTA grant would let the city keep about $43 million in state sales tax revenue over the next 50 years — money the city, the chamber, PURA and HARP want invested in a new exhibition hall, water park, parking structure and boathouse Downtown.

Private financing for the $14.4 million exhibition hall hasn’t materialized and the civic partners now want council to loan that money from the half-cent sales tax revenue that voters have dedicated to recruiting new primary jobs. The fund has close to $40 million.